Staff from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, may be deployed outside the bloc’s jurisdiction at non-EU borders in the Western Balkans. The move is part of an Action Plan on the Western Balkans tailored to crack down on a surge in illegal migrants, the European Commission underscored.
Coming under specific agreements with regional governments, the deployment could start as early as next year to "reinforce border management along the whole migration route” in cooperation with national border guards “to reduce irregular flows,” the EU’s executive announced.
“The number we have right now in the Western Balkans is around 500 personnel from Frontex deployed already, but today they're only deployed at the border between the Western Balkan partners and the EU external borders. With a new mandate, it will be possible to deploy also internally so to say, between two different Western Balkan partners," Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told media, adding that the exact numbers were yet to be decided on.
The EU bloc has been facing a massive surge in illegal migrants. From January to August 2022, nearly 188,200 such arrivals were registered - the highest number since 2016, Frontex said in September. Some of the most sought-out directions were the Western Balkan and Central Mediterranean routes, with 15,900 and 11,400 detections recorded in August 2022, respectively.
German police officers, representatives of the EU's border management agency Frontex, on the Greek island of Lesbos, look at a dinghy with migrants crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey, on October 17, 2015.
© AFP 2023 / DIMITAR DILKOFF
'Alignment Gaps'
The Frontex deployment initiative was announced ahead of an EU-Western Balkans summit in Tirana, Albania on Tuesday. One of the issues on the agenda, dominated by undocumented migration flows, is stalled bids by Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Serbia to join the EU. Over the summer, accession negotiations were boosted with Albania and North Macedonia.
However, one of the aspects that the EU has repeatedly demanded was better alignment with its rules, including on migration.
“All the western Balkan partners have significant gaps when it comes to . . . alignment with the EU visa policy, and that’s why they need to be addressed,” Ylva Johansson said on December 5.
Brussels has blamed the visa-free deals the aforementioned countries have in place with third countries as encouraging the flow of illegal migrants. For example, Serbia has such arrangements with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Guinea Bissau, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Suriname, and Turkey, but recently bowed to pressure from the bloc and ended visa-free travel with Tunisia and Burundi. The EU threatened to suspend Serbia’s visa-waiver access to the bloc to make its point.
The Tirana talks come as the EU has been demanding closer alignment of foreign and security policy, piling further pressure on Serbia to fall in line with Brussels' sanctions against Moscow.
Serbia is among the countries maintaining a neutral position on the Ukraine crisis and not joining most restrictions imposed on Moscow, with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic saying Belgrade will not impose sanctions on Russia until the very existence of Serbia is threatened.